Here comes Darien Moran with his red Wisconsin “W” hat flipped backward over his closely cropped hair. Typical 14-year-old, bounding with energy at the start of a new day. Anything seems possible to a teen, even something as big as overcoming a rare disease. And that’s good because that’s exactly what Darien is doing.

The date was Nov. 8, 1997, otherwise known as the day Daydrion Taylor and Bob Stephenson’s lives forever changed. In the first quarter of a Michigan-Penn State game at Beaver Stadium, Taylor, a Michigan safety, delivered a bone-crushing hit on Stephenson, a Penn State tight end, near the sideline. The collision was so fierce it ended both players’ careers.

When Michigan State beat Wisconsin on a long, last-second touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Keith Nichol last fall, the eyes of the rest of the conference were on that game. In a feature story that ran on our pregame TV show this morning, BTN talked to a number of Big Ten names who recall watching that incredible play on TV. We’ve posted the whole video here.

Earlier this week BTN football analyst Glen Mason sat down with Michigan football coach Brady Hoke in advance of today’s game against Michigan State (3:30 p.m. ET on BTN/BTN2Go). The feature aired Saturday morning on “The Big Ten Football Pregame Show” presented by Auto-Owners Insurance, and we now present their conversation to you in full online.

On this Saturday’s “Big Ten Football Pregame Show” presented by Auto-Owners Insurance, our crew profiles the touching story of a young brain cancer patient who is also a big Nebraska football fan. Jack Hoffman and Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead have formed a special relationship, and the two have worked together on “Team Jack.” In this post you can see portion of the full profile that airs Saturday on our 11 a.m. ET TV show. Read more about this at Huskers.com and at Jack Hoffman’s page at CaringBridge.com. Randy York at Huskers.com posted this recent update, too. Also, be sure to tune in at 11 a.m. ET Saturday. We’ll post the full feature online shortly after that.

Is it me, or has this Urban Meyer fellow had a bit of an impact at Ohio State? I know there are still some issues with this team – a bit too reliant on Braxton Miller, a tad shaky at times on defense – but that was still a pretty impressive performance on Saturday night. I really thought going into the game that you could construct an argument that Nebraska was the best team in the Big Ten. I thought wrong.

While there’s always a certain excitement surrounding opening weekend, last week’s slate in the Big Ten left quite a bit to be desired. Outside of Michigan’s match-up with Alabama and Michigan State’s battle with Boise State, very few of the games elicited much in the way of excitement. That is far from the case in Week 2, where I’d venture to say as many as eight or nine games carry a fairly significant level of intrigue.

As Northwestern safety Brian Peters’ college football career comes to a close, the senior shares his unlikely connection to seven-year-old Wildcat fan Jack Marshall, and the role Brian has played in helping Jack overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. The full video of this feature story will air on Saturday morning during our Big Ten Football Pregame show at 10:30 a.m. ET. But watch a snippet of it right here. Also, if you enjoy our BTN TV feature profiles, check out previous ones in our BTN features archive.

With no time left on the clock, Michigan State’s quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a Hail Mary to the end zone that bounced off of B.J. Cunningham’s helmet into the hands of wide receiver Keith Nichol, who drives to the end zone to give Michigan State the win over previously undefeated Wisconsin. That play cemented Nichol’s place in Michigan State history and represented the culmination of an amazing journey.

As a standout wide receiver for Indiana, Duwyce Wilson has become accustomed to the roar of the crowd at Memorial Stadium. The redshirt sophomore led the Hoosiers with an average of 15.2 yards per reception last year and is off to a strong start this season, tallying 11 receptions and two touchdowns in Indiana’s first three games. This is in sharp contrast to what Wilson refers to as his “quiet home.”

In 2009, the Big Ten Network brought you the inspiring story of Michigan State offensive lineman Arthur Ray Jr. – a blue-chip recruit from Chicago’s legendary Mt. Carmel High School who in 2007 was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his left leg just weeks after signing with MSU.

Watch now as Indiana’s Logan Young, Penn State’s JR Refice,and Nebraska’s Lester Ward, Big Ten football players who were born on September 11th, talk about what it is like to have your birthday on a date most commonly associated with an American tragedy.

September 11th, 2001 is a day that will forever resonate in America. In this tribute to September 11th, several Big Ten coaches reflect on where they were when they heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Watch now as the Big Ten coaches give their thoughts on how college football induced a sense of unity that helped America overcome the tragic events.

One week in the books. I was obviously fascinated to see a number of Big Ten teams in their openers for a variety of reasons – everything from coaching changes, to new quarterbacks and offenses, to overhauled defenses. It’s dangerous to jump to too many conclusions, particularly given the level of the competition that some conference teams played. But there were certainly a few numbers that stood out. Let’s start with the teams breaking in new coaches.

One of the biggest stories in college athletics this past year was Nebraska’s decision to move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. But how did the Big Red make the transition to the Big Ten? Watch now and learn more about the timeline and how the Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten.